Mish Delish Good Food Blog

I’m a professional food stylist and currently prepping my own series of cookbooks and a cooking show. In my food catering business, Mishka La Mushka, I catered private and corporate functions and events big and small, designed food in hat boxes for the Spring Racing Carnival and created too many themed kids birthday parties to mention. But now I love food styling and sharing my fun food ideas with mums wanting to create restaurant-quality meals at home, for kids and family. So let’s get cooking!

I'm Mish Lilley, a kitchen cook, food stylist and chef prepping a series of cookbooks, a cooking show and this blog. This blog is dedicated to my love of good food styling and good food. It's a cooking site and recipe website designed to help mums and dads create restaurant-quality meals at home for their kids and family. My wide range of recipes cover:

I did a readers choice callout on Facebook, and it seems a good vegetable & barley soup recipe is needed. So here it is.

We can’t get enough of tasty hearty soups in Melbourne, particularly when the weather takes a turn for the worst.

Remember, soup is all about the stock, so always use a good quality stock that is full of flavour. I know homemade stock can seem a bit labour intensive, but it is well worth the effort flavour wise. If you just can’t find the time, there are a few good quality brands that taste close to homemade such as The Stock Merchantand Moredough Kitchens.

You'll Need

1/2 cup organic barley

1 tbs olive oil

1 onion, finely chopped

2 cloves garlic. finely chopped

1 carrot, grated or julienned

1 parsnip, grated or julienned

1/4 pumpkin, chopped into small diced

1 zucchini, grated or julienned

6 cups chicken or vegetable stock

4 cups of water

1 cup chopped green beans (optional)

Method

Add the barley to a large pot of cold water and bring to the boil and simmer for 45 minutes.

Drain and rinse the grains under cold water and set aside.

Heat the olive oil in a large soup pot and gently saute the onion and garlic until transparent. Add the carrot, parsnip, pumpkin and zucchini and gently saute for 5 minutes.

Pour in the stock and water and bring to the boil. Turn down the heat to low and simmer for 20 minutes. Add the barley and beans and simmer for another 5 minutes.

Check for seasoning, depending on how flavourful the stock is, you may need to add a few big pinches of sea salt and lots of cracked pepper.